I Can Laugh Again
by ra1n
Summary: This is a take off of the fanfic "End of Laughter", a sort of second chapter. RR plz, no flameage


Can you picture what will be  
  
So limitless and free?...  
  
That night, Nala slept rather peacefully. She was entering a dream state. She saw from a first person view her and Simba romping and playing in the savannah, like they did when they were cubs. They then went over to the waterhole and laid down, out of breath and laughing. Everything then disappeared. It was only Simba and Nala together. Everything else was gone. The cub Simba then asked Nala,   
  
"Nala, why are you so sad?"  
  
"Well, Simba, I miss you. You have been gone for so long and I don't think I have the will to go on. I want to see you again. I want to die, Simba… my life's not worth living without you in it. I HAVE to see you again."  
  
"Nala, you don't have to die to see me. I still live. Come to me, Nala. Past the gorge, and through the desert, then go into the jungle. I am waiting for you, Nala. You must come find me." The image of Simba started to recede, until he was no longer visible. Nala awoke with a start.  
  
"I have to find him," Nala whispered to herself. She got up from the base of Pride Rock, where the lionesses now had to sleep, for Scar and a few of his select hyenas now slept in the main cave that once belonged to Mufasa and the lionesses. Nala walked toward the gorge to start her journey.  
  
Simba awoke, thinking he had just had a conversation with his best friend. His best friend who he hadn't thought about in ages.  
  
"Nala?" he asked, still half asleep. He noticed Timon and Pumbaa sleeping next to him, so he quietly got up to go to the river. Nala was on his mind now. He wondered what she looked like, what she sounded like, if she remembered him, how she remembered him. All these questions racing through his mind. He wondered as he drank if she was thinking about him, too. He felt in his heart that he had reached her, somehow. He knew that their paths would cross sometime soon.  
  
Nala had made it to the gorge, and had come up on Rafiki, standing on the edge of the cliff, apparently doing some kind of blessing over the spot where Mufasa had died. Nala thought she could get by him quietly enough to not have him notice her, but like magic, as soon as this thought had crossed her mind, Rafiki turned around with a big grin.  
  
"Good morning, Mees Nala. So good to see you. It makes dees old monkey glad to see someone outside da claws of dat awful Scar. Nala, have you felt dee air today?" He didn't give her enough time to reply. "Change ees coming. Last night, da weends told me dat you weel do someteeng great for us. You weel go on a great journey, and come back weeth someteeng great." Nala then spoke.  
  
"Rafiki, Simba came to me in a dream last night. I think… he might be alive. He said to come and find him. He told me where he was. I'm going to find him." Inside of Rafiki, something told him that it was true, but he didn't want to get his hopes up.  
  
"Nala, dees surprises Rafiki, but maybe dees ees it. Now Rafiki must go. Nala, you must complete dees journey, and don't worry about da otha lionesses. Rafiki weel talk to dem. Go now, Mees Nala." Nala started to go around the gorge. She wouldn't, she refused to go through the gorge, for obvious reasons. Nala had many thoughts of Simba rushing through her head. She got past the gorge, and started on the desert. She trekked through the sand and hardened earth for hours, until sundown, until her cream colored paws started to ache. She found an almost dead tree to lie under until the morning. She drifted off into a dreamless sleep. The night passed peacefully, into morning, as Nala turned her head away from the sun, in the aim to sleep a little more.  
  
Meanwhile in Rafiki's tree, Rafiki sat up in one of the top branches to greet the morning. Just then a few feathers of milkweed drifted through the air, towards Rafiki. He snatched them clean out of their peaceful float. He sniffed the milkweed, thought for a moment, then brought the handful down to his turtle shell mixing bowl. Rafiki grabbed some of the same fruit that he annointed Simba with as a cub and had a snack. He placed the milkweed into the bowl and swirled it aroung a bit. His expression suddenly changed. "Simba? He's- he's alive? He he- He's alive!" Rafiki laughed almost maniacally as he smeared some red paint on his finger and shaded a mane on the lion cub drawing that he had swept his hand across long ago, thinking Simba dead. "It is time," Rafiki said joyfully once he had finished drawing the mane on the lion.  
  
Nala had been travelling for three days now, and her energy was starting to wear thin. She hadn't had any water for about six hours, and hadn't eaten since the day before. Nala couldn't even remember why she was out here, all that was on her mind was food and water. Nala remembered once again… Simba, she thought, I'm coming. She came to a prarie type region on the late afternoon of the third day. She was so hungry… she had never felt this kind of hunger before. She heard something in the near bushes stir. She then saw it. A warthog. She was saved. Now if she could only muster the strength to hunt it down. She stalked the warthog, and got ready. This is it, she thought. I only have one chance to pull this off. She lunged, and pursued the warthog, chased it until it got stuck in a tree root. A small animal was in front of it trying to help it out of the root. This was it… lunchtime! Just as she was going to go in for the kill, a huge male lion jumped out from behind the tree. She thought it was Simba, but her innocent, unsophisticated self told her that Simba wouldn't attack her, so Nala assumed it to be some other lion. They fought savagely until Nala ended up pinning the strange lion on his back.  
  
"Nala?" The lion asked surprisedly. Nala immediately backed off into a sitting position. "Is it really you?"  
  
"Who are you?" Nala asked.  
  
"It's me. Simba."  
  
"Simba?" 


End file.
